Come on, you know there’s no such thing as a free donation.

By Steve Kehrli

As I started to pull my notes together for this article, I went to what was safe — let’s see — five costs that every fundraiser needs to consider for e-philanthropy. The list was obvious, quick and yet painful to make.

1. A powerful e-commerce platform fully integrated with your database of record.
2. A creative team that can create copy that sings, images that move and video that streams.
3. A production department that inherently knows Gmail still sucks and needs to standardize its e-mail rendering.
4. A list of online prospects that not only agree to talk to you but to also, eventually, send you money.
5. And finally, consultants and analysis that provide actionable recommendations.